


Only We Know

by Katherine



Category: The Lion King (1994)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Implied Past Rape/Non-Con, Pregnancy, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:09:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Sarafina smiled at her, touching one paw, featherlight, to Nala's belly. There was no visible increase there yet. Only a subtle knowledge that Nala felt within herself. It was a relief that her mother somehow already knew.





	Only We Know

Sarafina smiled at her, touching one paw, featherlight, to Nala's belly. There was no visible increase there yet. Only a subtle knowledge that Nala felt within herself. It was a relief that her mother somehow already knew. Nala could wait to have to speak aloud, just yet, that she was carrying cubs.

It was too soon. These first children of hers should have been made at the end of her time, from Simba's embrace in the jungle. That at the earliest. More securely, her cubs should have been conceived in a secret cavern of Pride Rock, fathered after she was acknowledged Simba's queen. But these lives that Nala could already feel within her might be from before. If they had come to be from Scar's unyielding weight on her before she fled from the Pride Lands...

"Simba might—these might not—" She spoke scattered words that she watched Sarafina calmly taking in. "From before."

Sarafina made a throaty noise of acknowledgement, and took a long moment to consider. When she spoke it was with a practical tone. "Even if Scar did get a cub on you, and that have the look of him, remember Scar was Simba's own uncle."

She drew her paw back from Nala and scratched aimless swirls in the dust, her claws slightly extended. "There's little enough to tell one lion cub's fathering from another, before his mane comes in."

Nala shook her head, torn. "But what if Simba—" She broke off, unable to voice the depths of her fears. What if he rejected her. Refused to acknowledge the cubs. Set some other lioness up as his queen. What if he banished her.

"You are his queen. You're the one that brought him back to the Pride Lands. And before that," Sarafina said, her gaze softening with memory, "You were the cub he had all the best adventures with."

Sarafina licked gently across the top of Nala's head, as if her daughter were still a cub in need of grooming. "You speak to Simba when you're ready to. Or if," she said. As she continued grooming Nala, Nala edged a little further from the tension she held inside, a little nearer to security.

Sarafina's words were low. "We've all had long practice of keeping secrets, under Scar. New king or no, I can keep another secret for your sake."

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the song "Somewhere Only We Know".  
> 
>
>> And if you have a minute why don't we go  
> Talk about it somewhere only we know?  
> This could be the end of everything


End file.
